friend-who, like the man in Theophraftus, holds his acquaintance by the button to entreat his care for his own fifter's health, till the cause is loft which he was going to defend -- who crams your fick children with cake, advises immediate inoculation, and fetches in the furgeon himself, that the bufinefs may not be delayed-who hurries people into marriage before the fettlements are drawn, advising them not to put off their happiness, but fteal a wedding while the old folks are confulting, &c.-who proclaims a bankruptcy which might have been prevented, and gives you notice to fave what you have in his hands, by taking up goods inftead of cash-who, in his zeal for the reconciliation of his two beft friends, traps them into a fudden meeting, fhuts them into a room together before their refentment is cooled, crying Now kifs and be friends, you honeft dogs, do; and ftands amazed to hear in an hour's time that they have cut each other's

other's throat. These men deserve a rougher appellation than TROUBLESOME : yet 'tis the fcourge of their acquaintance to be obliged now and then to look civil upon and even to thank them for their IMPORTUNATE KINDNESS; -while, FORWARD TO RENDER UNDESIRED SERVICES-fuch they pretend to think them fellows of this description fit at home wondering at the world's ingratitude, when every house which has common fense within its walls fhuts them out at the gate.

ORATORY, ELOQUENCE, RHETORICK.

TO curfory readers these words may pos fibly feem to approach nearer to fynonymy than they will be found to do on closer inspection and feverer fcrutiny. Each term looks back perpetually to its derivation; and

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the firft of them is even in our common talk naturally applied to him who folicits, re quefts, befeeches, pleading fome cause of the helpless or diftreffed, with ELOQUENCE of address and skill in RHETORICK. The ori ginal fenfe, as used in our courts of chancery, when the person fupplicating is styled your ORATOR or ORATRIX, lies ftill concealed under our colloquial language, and we yield the palm of ORATORY to him who best knows the arts of perfuafion. For Warwick is a fubtle ORATOR, fays one who fears his powers of entreaty, in Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth; whilft ELOQUENCE implies more properly a plenitude of words, and adroitness in arranging them, with a sweet voice and pleafing volubility of utterance. Without all these 'tis difficult to fhine as a perfect RHETORICIAN; though I have feen filent ORATORY more capable of touching our hearts than any tropes or figuresaye, or than all the graces of neat articulation,

lation, added to all the science of RHETORICK. As proof of this, who would not rather choose Mrs. Siddons to plead a cause for immediate pardon from one's fovereign than Sheridan or Fox? Phrafeology is confounded and invention frozen before the genuine expreffion of a throbbing heart; and Quintilian faid truly, that to speak well we muft feel fincerely. This was in cafes of ORATORY, however. ELOQUENCE is fhewn in description chiefly; and though it does not fet the place defcribed before your eyes more exactly than lefs ornamented discourse would have done, it gives a momentary exaltation and delight to the mind, calls round a pleafing train of imagery, and furnishes elegant ideas for future combination.

I have a friend particularly eminent in fuch powers of charming her audience; who, although they leave her society more dazzled perhaps than inftructed, find perpetual fources of entertainment by reflecting on the fcenes

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fcenes fo fweetly brought before their view, in words fo choice and well adapted, yet poured forth with fluency which knows not, and copiousness which needs not hesitation. When the reads this, however, Mrs. P will acknowledge that the very rules and terms of RHETORICK are unknown to her, fo great is the diftance between our candidates for fynonymy. "Tis in the House of Commons we must seek inverfion and prolepfis, every figure of the art, employed with all the skill of those who seek to baffle where they scarcely mean to convince- or where, convinced already, they mean to maintain the fide they have chofen to fupport, in defiance of the champions opposite, to whose triumph they with not to bear witness. Here ORATORY has no place, according to Dr. Johnfon; who faid no man was ever perfuaded to give a vote contrary to what he intended in the morning, by any arguments, or any ELOQUENCE heard within thofe

walls.